The Lurie Cancer Center Mourns the Loss of Dr. Piotr Kulesza

Piotr Kulesza was an associate professor in the Department of Pathology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a physician at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. He served as the Director of the Pathology Core Facility of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University. He has been at Northwestern since September 2009.

Dr. Kulesza was attending a conference at a hotel in Hollywood, Florida at the time of his death.

Following is a note sent Monday morning from Dr. William Muller, the chair of the department of pathology, announcing Dr. Kulesza's death.

Colleagues,

We are truly grieved to announce that Piotr (Peter) Kulesza, MD, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Pathology died unexpectedly this weekend while at a professional meeting in Florida. Details of his death are not known at this time.

A native of Warsaw, Poland, Peter received his undergraduate degree at the University of Alabama, and his combined MD/PhD degrees at Washington University in St. Louis. He was a resident in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology at Johns Hopkins, where he stayed on for a Fellowship in Cytopathology. He joined the Pathology faculty at Johns Hopkins in 2004 and was recruited back to the University of Alabama in 2006 before we recruited him to Northwestern in 2009.

Peter was a remarkable colleague, who will be remembered for his infectious enthusiasm and energy. He was dedicated to our academic mission, and this was evident in his interactions with colleagues, residents, fellows, and medical students. He was an ambitious researcher, who was a principle investigator on R01 grants as well as clinical trials. Peter was also a talented and conscientious cytopathologist. However, his unique contribution to FSM was as the Director of the Pathology Core Facility of the Robert H. Lurie Cancer Center and Director of the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOGACRIN) Pathology Coordinating Office and Reference Laboratory at Northwestern. He was appointed to this position in April 2011 and truly revitalized the facility.

Our hearts and prayers go out to Peter’s family; to all his colleagues in the Department of Pathology; and the staff of the NMH Cytopathology laboratory and the Pathology Core Facility, who had the pleasure of working with him. He will be sorely missed. A memorial service will be held in his honor in the near future.

With profound sorrow for this loss,

William A. Muller, MD, PhD
Magerstadt Professor and Chairman
Department of Pathology
Northwestern University
Feinberg School of Medicine